Time Revisited
by Uncle Charlie
Summary: Steel wonders if humans got it right all along


"_Steel?"_

"_Yes, Sapphire?"_

"_Do you ever wonder?"_

"_What?"_

"_What it's like to be human… be one of them?"_

"_No."_

He shouldn't lie to her, not to his own partner, but he did anyway. He did often wonder what it was like to be tired, to be hungry, or to feel the full range of emotions granted humans by the Immortals.

Assuming human shape did have its strengths, as well as its weaknesses. They could more easily walk the planet surface like this, but it opened them up to all sorts of pitfalls – pity, remorse, indecision, love – no one could prepare you for when you initially felt these emotions. Even being fed through carefully placed filters, it was nearly impossible not to react the first time a human died in your arms. Or worse, the first time you felt panic for the safety of your partner.

He watched her, she was red today: red hair, red dress, everything red. People and coworkers often forgot that sapphires came in a range of hues from nearly colorless to the tradition blue. Steel didn't often bother with her outward appearances. It was the facets of her inner self that kept him close, made him protective, made him shelter her from everything he could.

Not that she needed protection. While Sapphire appeared fragile, she was strong, nearly as strong as Diamond, tougher and more serious than Jet. When Steel had been reassigned to work with her, he had assumed it would be a temporary assignment. After all, he and Jet made a good team, although she was a little too emotionally intense for him, she could also jolt him from his self-imposed dungeon of containment. He both welcomed and resented the way she so easily broke through his barriers, taking him apart until he was just shards. Then slowly and precisely putting him back together, both physically and mentally. Time spent with Jet was torture and pleasure, torment and delight. Steel was secretly delighted to have a reprieve from her.

Steel watched Sapphire kneel gracefully to engage in conversation with a child. He didn't bother with the young humans. They were often incomplete and unable to do more than cling to them in a time of crisis. There were exceptions, of course, but in whole and by far, he eschewed them. But not Sapphire, quite the contrary with her – she would approach a child before an adult, insisting that their emotions were more honest. She brushed a strand of hair from the child's face, comforting, but also reaching in to read and date the subject.

Sapphire felt too easily, too empathically for him. It was been distasteful at first and he'd thought her another Jet – too close to the humans to keep from reacting. And she'd surprised him. She was brilliant, she was brave and she was a fighter. He came to appreciate all those traits. More, he came to rely upon them and to wonder if this was the whole purpose of his being re-partnered. Not to make her a better agent, but to make him a more compassionate one.

He'd been brought up, forged really, by Iron and Nickel, to be strong, hard unyielding. Neither of them had been particularly doting parents and he'd grown into adulthood to be the sort of creation that made the other agents avoid him, the other Elementals whisper as he left the room and to fall silent when he entered. He made no secret of his disdain for them. Silver teased him, Lead joked with him. He tolerated them because he needed their talents. It didn't mean he liked them.

Sapphire, on the other hand, was everyone's darling. Her sparkling personality and easygoing nature made her a fast favorite. Teaming them together seemed silly, but the Immortals didn't have much of a sense of humor – everything they did was for a reason.

So Steel had gone out with her into the field, working with her, honing her skill, giving her his strength when she faltered, making her able to be hard when necessary. In turn, she gave him the warmth of her arms, her smile. Holding him when sensory overload threatened his control. Then she'd kissed him.

They'd been out on a dozen assignments, quickly become the top team, able to out-wit, out-maneuver, out-think Time and its agents. The assignment had been just one more, and then she'd kissed him. Perhaps it had been payback. He'd kissed her once before, a soft reassuring kiss to her cheek, meant to shake her from the melee of disjointed facts and figures. There had been no reason for her to kiss him, not really.

No reason and yet it was the one thing he came back to again and again. He thought of it as they waited in their prison, waiting to be found and released. At times, that memory had been the only thing that kept him from panicking, of doubting the strength and wisdom of the Immortals. They, of course, had been found and released, able to stop the rogue Elements before they did too much damage.

They'd lost Copper and Gold; so easy to manipulate, they succumbed early in the battle, as did so many other of their agents until it had been Lead, Silver, Jet, Sapphire, and himself left to hold the line. They now bore their scars proudly, marks that told the other of their commitment to the cause. Time was put back, locked into its velvet cage and the fight went on. And the only thing that seemed to make it worth the effort had been his memory of that kiss. He racked his brain for a reason, for any explanation of why that would be so.

"_Steel?"_

"_Yes, Sapphire?"_

"_Are you all right?"_

He looked sharply at her. The child was gone, time had passed, he was certain of that.

"_Of course, why do you ask?"_

"I don't know." She said this aloud. "You looked lost." She took his hand and squeezed it. "Don't tell me the great Steel was lost in a day dream."

"Not likely." He kept his tone dry, with just the smallest hint of a smile. Then on impulse, he brought her hand to his mouth, kissed the warm flesh gently. "In fact, quite the opposite. For the first time in a long time, I think I have been found."


End file.
